7 Chefs Share Inspiration from Their Moms

Mother’s Day is a celebration of all the great things moms do for us, but here at First We Feast, we wanted to give a special shout out to one of most essential aspects of the maternal playbook: cooking.

Of course, everyone says their mom and grandma make the best roast chicken, chocolate cake, marinara sauce, curry, biscuits, or [insert your family favorite here]. Most of us are happy to just eat these dishes whenever we get a chance. But some big-name chefs have taken that inspiration and done something with it, incorporating homages (or even exact recipes) into their restaurants, or drawing on the lessons they learned in their childhood kitchen to inform their menus.

Throughout our “10 Dishes That Made My Career” series, moms have come up frequently. Here, seven chefs share stories about awesome moms and the childhood dishes that helped shape them as cooks.

Mother's Day is a celebration of all the great things moms do for us, but here at First We Feast, we wanted to give a special shout out to one of most essential aspects of the maternal playbook: cooking.
Of course, everyone says their mom and grandma make the best roast chicken, chocolate cake, marinara sauce, curry, biscuits, or [insert your family favorite here]. Most of us are happy to just eat these dishes whenever we get a chance. But some big-name chefs have taken that inspiration and done something with it, incorporating homages (or even exact recipes) into their restaurants, or drawing on the lessons they learned in their childhood kitchen to inform their menus.
Throughout our "10 Dishes That Made My Career" series, moms have come up frequently. Here, seven chefs share stories about awesome moms and the childhood dishes that helped shape them as cooks.

Christina Tosi | Gooey Butter Cake

Momofuku Milk BarTosi says: "My mother and grandmother used to make [butter cake]. It’s rich, it’s dense, it’s gooey, it’s sweet. I loved to study the different layers of the gooey texture. I didn’t really think I could put gooey butter cake on the menu at Milk Bar, but I needed something that would be that same gooey-sweet-sugary mix. I’m a really big creature of crunch, but in a baked good, it’s about the gooey."
Read about the rest of Tosi's most influential dishes.

Jacques Torres | Bonbons

Jacques Torres ChocolateTorres says: "As far back as I can remember, my mother would bring home boxes of little chocolates; you’d call them bonbons. The outside shell was chocolate and the inside had different fillings, but there was no way to know before you bit in. A lot of them were filled with sugar, like a fondant, and those were no good. But some of them were filled with nuts—almond or hazelnut, mostly, made into a paste and mixed with caramel—and they were so good, so flavorful. That’s where I developed my taste for praline."
Read about the rest of Torres' most influential dishes.

Jamie Bissonnette | Chili

Coppa, ToroBissonnette says: "My mom can only make three things that are edible, and chili is one of them. She makes it in a crock-pot with dried beans and a ton of Budweiser, and she cooks it for, like, two days. It smells so damn good; we’d eat it with a little pat of butter on top. Today, I always have some sort of chili incarnation on my menus."
Read about the rest of Bissonnette's most influential dishes.

Harold Dieterle | Blue Crabs with Red Sauce

Perilla, Kin Shop, the MarrowDieterle says: "I love blue crabs—really all types of crabs, but blue crabs are the one I grew up with as a kid on Long Island. We'd catch them on the docks near my home and my mother would cook up a huge pot of crab gravy, or red sauce. The family recipe has always been onions, garlic, fennel seed, fresh red pepper, and tomatoes—at the end you drop in some basil leaves from the garden. It was a favorite of mine then, and it remains a favorite today."
Read about the rest of Dieterle's most influential dishes.

Ashley Christensen | Fried Chicken

Poole's Diner, Beasley's Chicken + HoneyChristensen says: "My Memphis-born mother's fried chicken is of my most texturally vivid food memories. From start to finish, the smells, sights, and sounds of the whole process are ingrained in me. She would soak the chicken in buttermilk and then shake it in seasoned flour dredge in one of the week’s brown paper shopping bags (the original recycling plan). Next would come the crackling of hot oil tested with drip water, and then the gentle sizzling of the battered chicken slowly rested into the oil by my mother's deft hand. Then the silencing of the oil by the removal of the crispy-skinned chicken and the promise that the dinner bell was soon to ring (if the smell of browning chicken skin hadn't already given that away). As my father was a hobbyist bee keeper, wild-flower honey was always the condiment of choice. This near-weekly childhood experience made such an impression on me that a year and change ago, I opened Beasley's Chicken + Honey in downtown Raleigh."
Read about the rest of Christensen's most influential dishes.

Jackson Boxer | Quail

Brunswick House, Rita's Bar & DiningBoxer says: "The greatest entertainer and provider I know, my mother lives and breathes for everyone, and has the most generous spirit of anyone I’ve ever encountered. [For this dish], copious quails are dressed in fat and fried hard in the largest skillet on which one can lay hands, then clattered into a medium oven to finish. Meanwhile, a great bowl of warm silky puy lentils are dressed with curly parsley from her garden, and a salad of crisp chicory with a mustard vinaigrette. Feeds 4 to 50. A lot of my favorite memories from childhood involved helping her in these Herculean feats, and the pleasure I’ve learnt from her in feeding other people is what got me into this game in the first place."
Read about the rest of Boxer's most influential dishes.

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